Prophecies, Faeries, Djinni, and Werewolves. A New Fantasy World AwaitsâŠ
A Class Five mage, Khalid developed the only long-distance magical weapon in existence: the dreaded djinni, who spin across the deserts, destroying everything in their path. Now, he faces the kind of challenge only an Oracle could have predicted.
In "Recasting Fate," we join Khalid as he attempts to rout the European invaders from the Sahara Desert. Except a faerie breezes in with an offer he can't refuse.
In "Djinn Swarm," Khalid battles for self-control when he discovers that the only thing more powerful than a djinn is love.
These two novelettes are a perfect gateway into the Fifth Mage War series, introducing new characters and new cultures as the world moves inextricably toward a cataclysmic war.
The Fifth Mage War series is epic fantasy set in the modern world. It is a series created for readers who enjoy complex world-building and intricate characterization.
Prophecies, Faeries, Djinni, and Werewolves. A New Fantasy World AwaitsâŠ
A Class Five mage, Khalid developed the only long-distance magical weapon in existence: the dreaded djinni, who spin across the deserts, destroying everything in their path. Now, he faces the kind of challenge only an Oracle could have predicted.
In "Recasting Fate," we join Khalid as he attempts to rout the European invaders from the Sahara Desert. Except a faerie breezes in with an offer he can't refuse.
In "Djinn Swarm," Khalid battles for self-control when he discovers that the only thing more powerful than a djinn is love.
These two novelettes are a perfect gateway into the Fifth Mage War series, introducing new characters and new cultures as the world moves inextricably toward a cataclysmic war.
The Fifth Mage War series is epic fantasy set in the modern world. It is a series created for readers who enjoy complex world-building and intricate characterization.
The rasp of sand dunes shifting beneath the ever-present wind roared in Khalidâs ears. He ignored it as he evaluated the dark landscape. A moonless night was a terrible time to cast complex spells, but the desert held immense power. Illuminated by starlight, the ambient magick blanketing the sand glimmered like translucent purple silk atop black wool.
It would have to be enough. At dawn, the magick released by daylight would make the sand shimmer like molten gold. But by casting the spell in the dark, far from the enemy camp, Khalid wouldnât be able to see his djinni dealing out death.
Before the battle at Sabha, he loved watching his enemy fall.
Everything was different now. But this plan was depressingly similar to all their previous plans to win the war. At least this time if the spell modifications failed, he could recast it without taking his own army down with him.
I donât want to die. Khalid straightened, grateful for the wind that stung his eyes and tugged at his protective scarf.
Worrying was a waste of mental energy. The revised djinn spell would work, and his Saaqib tribe would once again prove its worthiness to rule. They needed to end the war quickly â before the other Arabian tribes withdrew their fighters. A bloodless victory tonight would offset the price of winning Sabha.
Or so his sisters believed.
The wind gusted past, bringing with it painful memories: the sharp copper scent, the dusky red collage painted into the golden sand. The sticky feel of his blood-soaked robes drying in the midmorning heat. The frantic prayers of the small cadre huddled behind him. The screams.
Khalid wrapped his headcloth tighter around his face. I will kill them all. And when the European enclaves invaded again, as they always did, he would kill them all again. And again and again. Until the rotten ripeness of the battlefield no longer affected him because it was all he knew.
âAl-Amir, drink this,â Malik said.
Khalid turned. He hadnât been expecting Vizier Malik, let alone the four guards the Prime Minister had brought.
âYou should be waiting at camp. Out of range,â Khalid said, but took the outstretched flagon. A few shots of ambrosia would help him remain conscious after the spell was complete. In truth, he would prefer to pass out and awaken after his djinni had completed their mission. But that was a childâs wish, and he was the Amir.
Heâd never felt this kind of wracking guilt. A true leader did not murder his own, even unintentionally. And yet, Malik still called him âAl-Amir.â His advisor forgave atrocity too easily.
Khalid drank. The fermented silica-salt burned like the desert sun atop already-reddened skin, and he coughed.
âTake your time, Amir,â Malik said. âWe have hours before sunrise.â
âThis spell will take at least an hour to cast,â Khalid replied, but he sipped more slowly, letting the brew coat his tongue with the honeyed flavor of flowers mixed with mint and spice.
The djinn spell required power, precision, and most importantly, endurance. Feeling the rush of magick percolate through his blood as he drank, he realized how spent heâd been â too worn down physically to cast such a complex enchantment without the aid of sunlight or ambrosia. Malik saved me again, Khalid thought.
He held out the flagon to his friend.
âYou need it more than I,â Malik demurred. But when Khalid jiggled the outstretched bottle, his vizier took it. Malik pulled his face covering off and drank deeply. âFrom the fields around Riyadh?â
Khalid shrugged. âYouâre the connoisseur. But itâs high-proof. What I needed.â
âYou shouldnât be here with just a body man,â Malik scolded, handing the bottle back. âI brought your guards with me.â
âThe djinn spell modifications are untestedââ
âTheyâll work,â Malik cut him off. âThis is a better design than the one you attempted at Sabha. At least Iâm here now. You may be the only mage capable of raising a djinn, but even you need ambrosia to keep casting the spells day after day!â
Khalid couldnât deny that. Malik had wanted to stay with him, but Khalid had insisted his vizier go to the northern front instead. His sisters had needed all the mages they could muster, and Khalidâs djinni were invincible. That was one argument Malik had to be glad heâd lost. If his friend had come with him to Sabha, heâd be dead alongside everyone else.
Khalid drank deeply, then recorked the bottle. âAny more, and Iâll explode.â
âDo you remember the time Loujain got too drunk to contain her magick? She almost destroyed the shields over the casting field.â
He could hear the smile in Malikâs voice. Heâd rather be dealing with his little sisterâs excesses right now.
âI wish we were back in Riyadh. I miss my workshop. Before this started, I was close to creating a seeking djinn spell that wouldnât harm the target.â
âSoon, Al-Amir, the invaders will be gone, and weâll be home again.â
Khalid nodded. That was the hope.
âDo you want to review the schematic? I can hold it while you cast.â Malik beckoned Khalidâs body man forward, taking the leather-bound spellbook from him.
âThanks,â Khalid replied. His mundane assistant was skilled, but he couldnât see magick, and Khalid would have to prompt him to turn the page. Malikâs help would make it easier to concentrate on the spell.
Even if his enemy figured out what Khalid was casting, they wouldnât be able to defend themselves this time. Tonight, Khalidâs djinni would attack anyone tethered by a magical binding.
And every European mage was magically bound to their enclave.
This new djinn design came from old research heâd abandoned decades before this war, back when they were still fighting the Magi. Khalid had originally developed the djinn enchantment as a seek-and-destroy spell: find a specific person and spin them apart. That had been a winning strategy when the Saaqibâs enemies had been specific mages, but a less effective one when their enemies were hordes of foreign conquerors. So Khalid had changed the design to shield all who had pledged themselves to the Saaqib tribe from his djinni.
Until Sabha.
Malik opened Khalidâs spellbook and cast a low-level illumination spell on it. âWeâre ready, Al-Amir. This spell targets magical bindings, and none of our people should be affected. The questers are out-of-range, and all our apprentices should be unbound by now.â
The multicolored schematic glowed brightly, beckoning Khalid. He was giddy from the ambrosia, but that would wear off quickly. He glanced over the first steps of the spell, which he knew by heart. This wasnât simply a via- or silica-salt enchantment, but a mixture of both forms of spellcraft.
The djinni would emerge from the very air itself, their forms mimicking that of their enchanter. Instructions for their short existence were coded in dense, layered patterns of magick that required more endurance than power to cast. His djinn spell was the only long-range magical weapon in existence, unstoppable and devastating. No one could outrun the wind.
Khalid cracked his neck from side to side and rolled his shoulders back. It all began with a simple left-forward three-turn. The rest of the patterns would rest atop that foundation. It was difficult to keep so many complex patterns distinct and separate before releasing them, but Khalid had been casting variations on this spell since 1728. Even exhausted, he could focus long enough to raise a single djinn.
He'd learned that at Sabha.
Khalid flipped the pages forward, studying the modified patterns that targeted magical bindings.
If it worked, the djinni would rip the enclave-bound mages apart. The invaders would flee or surrender. Despite their superior weapons, the French mundanes knew they couldnât win the war without mage support.
The Arabian masters had been given six hours to unbind their apprentices. If one or two were missed, that was an acceptable price for total victory. Or so he tried to convince himself.
This was nothing like Sabha.
Khalid turned the pages back to the beginning of the spell schematic. Malik didnât rush him, didnât say anything to break his concentration. The mundane guards scanned the distance for threats, unaware of the danger Khalid himself posed to them if his first casting failed.
But Malik knew. The vizierâs face glowed dimly in the reflected illumination from the spellbook. If this modification didnât work, and Khalid had to cast another djinn â an unrestricted djinn â then the price of five mundanes and two mages was an acceptable trade-off.
In theory.
âYour design is sound,â Malik said, the cool confidence in his tone audible despite the gusting wind.
Khalid pushed his doubts aside and pulled on his power. Swirls of gold and silver flickered in a forward conical pattern as he built the djinni. He allowed himself the pleasure of getting lost in its glorious complexity. This was the scaffolding on which the functional aspects of the enchantment would rest. It was difficult magick, requiring multiple layers of patterns and tempos to bend the desert air.
Malik flipped the page.
Khalid adjusted the timing of the rippling pattern in the lower quadrant before moving on to the next stage. Methodically, slowly, he built the djinni, encoding the task his creations would undertake in each line of the undulating magick.
He smoothed the edges of the final pattern in the design. At this point in a multi-djinn casting, Khalid normally struggled to maintain visual focus, but right now, he could see the dense lines of his spell without squinting. Either Malik had sourced some extraordinarily high-proof ambrosia, or Khalid had made a mistake. Khalid hesitated, staring at the intricate turns of magick.
âI see no errors, Amir,â Malik announced.
How well he knows me, Khalid thought, and held his breath as he released the spell.
The first djinn emerged in the night sky: a whirlwind topped with a simulacrum of Khalid himself. Knife-sharp grains of sand spun upward, pulled by the centrifugal force of the air that formed the constructâs lower half. Khalid swallowed down bile as he looked at his creation. The djinnâs outstretched arms were frozen in a gesture of welcome, but its unblinking eyes were indifferent to the suffering it was about to cause.
If only he could create a living construct, he wouldnât be forced to watch oversized statues of himself wreaking destruction. Before Sabha, he used to revel in the fact that his enemy would know he had been the mage who had killed them. Now, the sight of his giant face in the sky made him sick.
Two more djinni coalesced, dragging roiling storms of colored lightning behind them like fringed capes. Malik shut the spellbook, words of congratulations on his lips. But his face fell, his compliments silenced before they could be uttered. Khalidâs heart rate sped up as he followed his vizierâs gaze.
The three djinni should have been flying north over the dunes to the enemy encampment, spinning tornados of wind and lightning beneath them. Instead, the constructs hung suspended in midair, their lower whirlwinds frozen into a stillness as eerie as their unmoving humanoid tops.
A rush of air rippled Khalidâs headscarf and robe, but the desert was suddenly silent. He could no longer hear the rasp of wind over sand.
Eurus, Khalid realized, his grim fear sinking into actual dread.
The glimmering white-gold outline of a womanâs face emerged in front of the djinni. Khalid swallowed as she pressed her lips against one statue-like face before dissipating back into air.
Khalid waved Malik back to the assembled guard. âGo,â he said. âBack to camp.â
But Malik pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with him. âNo one can contend against the air itself, Amir. It wonât matter if we stay or go.â
Thatâs an unfortunate truth, Khalid thought. For all they knew, Eurus existed within the very air they drew into their lungs. She was everywhere but only rarely took physical form. Humans, even other faeries, were typically beneath her notice.
âYour djinni still donât live.â
The East Windâs soft voice was impossible to locate, though they all spun around to look for her. Eurus was air, an elemental faerie born billions of years ago when the Earthâs atmosphere formed.
âWhy are you here?â Khalid called, his voice overly loud in the stillness.
Eurus, as the East Wind liked to be called, manifested into a shadowed figure floating cross-legged as if atop a flying carpet. But of course, Eurus didnât need any support to defeat gravity.
Khalidâs face covering blew off, and he caught the red headcloth before responding. âYou told me war didnât interest you anymore.â
âYour djinni interest me.â The elemental faerieâs voice hovered in the air around him, pressing against him like the atmospheric warning of an approaching sandstorm.
âIâm no via-enchanter to cast spells on living things, Lady Eurus,â Khalid reminded her. The fae demanded honesty, and heâd told her this many times already. âI donât know how to make a djinn draw breath.â
âYou were working hard to modify your spells,â Eurus said. âAt least until your sisters convinced you to claim the Sahara for your al-Saaqib tribe.â
âI have a duty to protect the desertâs people. I canât play with spell designs while we remain under threat,â Khalid said â then cursed himself when he realized heâd given her an opening.
She pounced. âI am more dangerous than five thousand battlemages. Bargain with me. I can steal your enemiesâ breath. Blow their ships back from your shores. I can keep your lands safe from the predators while you perfect your djinn spells.â
âIâm no via-enchanter, Lady Eurus,â Khalid repeated. âI spent decades and only managed to integrate biomarkers into the design.â
His gaze flickered up. Six vacant eyes that matched his own stared down at him in impotent stillness. Eurusâs magick held his unreleased djinni captive. He needed her to let them fly. Let Khalid kill his enemy.
âYou see how well I can keep you safe,â Eurus said, glancing upward as well. âEven from your own spells.â
Khalid hated how tempting her offer was now. Everyone else had perished at Sabha. It had been a Pyrrhic victory, but a victory nonetheless. If she didnât release his djinni, this battle would end in an actual defeat.
There was nothing worse than defeat.
âDo not surrender, Al-Amir,â Malik whispered. âWith or without the djinni, we will prevail!â
âSurrender? Who said anything about surrender? Iâll be your hired hand, Amir Khalid ibn Hawwa al-Saaqib!â Eurusâs voice hung slyly in the air as she fluttered down into a full bow, her thin frame splayed across the sand before him.
Khalid stared down at the elemental faerie. No sane person made a bargain with a faerie, but then, no sane faerie stalked a human.
Eurus was practically a myth. Most of the ancient fae had long since faded back into the elements from which they came. After a dozen disconcerting encounters with the East Wind, Khalid wondered if the only reason she hadnât faded was her hope of one day playing with miraculously self-aware djinni.
But faeries played in forests, not deserts. In fact, Eurus was the only faerie Khalid had ever met. Heâd just enchanted his first djinn and was rapidly losing consciousness when Eurus emerged from the air beside it. Sheâd tried to dance with his construct, her white, pupilless eyes gleaming in the sunlight. But its unmoving arms had disappointed her, and she demanded he make it âliveâ in that now-familiar, omnipresent voice of hers.
Heâd collapsed. When he woke, he assumed sheâd been but a dream: the fae didnât venture into the barren deserts. Eurus returned only after the Saaqibs had freed the Arabian desert from the Magi. That time, there was no mistaking her for a dream: sheâd remained inchoate, pulling him from his newly-built casting field in Riyadh into the sky. At first, heâd been too surprised to be scared.
Sheâd coalesced from the air beside him, popping into being with as little effort as it took him to flex his fingers. âLife is struggle,â the East Wind announced, and told him to call her Eurus. âI have only my siblings left to challenge. Set your djinni free to play with me.â Then she made her first offer.
Back then, Khalid didnât understand the meaning of a fae bargain. But heâd been too honorable to make a promise he couldnât keep. At the same time, heâd been too proud to admit that creating life was beyond his ability. âGo back to Siberia and play with your own kind,â heâd suggested.
âNot even the most powerful seelie queens can contend with the air itself,â she replied.
That was the moment Khalid realized how dangerous Eurus was. He tried to appease her, hoping sheâd eventually find another pastime or interest. But every few years, she returned. Needling him, extolling his latest developments. And, Khalid swallowed, making offers.
He removed his outer robe, shaking the sand from it before reaching down to help her up. âLady Eurus, Iâm no via-enchanter to breathe life into my spells. I have no talent for such magicks.â
But she knew that already. Eurus had already assured him she was willing to wait. That he would need centuries of study before he could even attempt to bring his mage-construct to awareness. But still she returned, asking for what he knew he couldnât give her â even if he lived longer than Methuselah.
Khalid squeezed her hand and let go, praying she would let him go as well. He held out his robe to her. âLady, Iâm not powerful enough to make the djinni live. I can only disappoint you.â
âYou delight me,â Eurus replied, her pupilless white eyes glistening as she pulled his robe around her. âSo honest even when I frighten you with my power! Few faeries can manage that. Even fewer humans.â
Still, she didnât leave. Khalid could see no other option. âLet my spell fly, and we can bargain. You aid my enemy by giving them time to understand the enchantment.â
âYour djinn spell spins too fast for them to discern,â Eurus said in that disembodied voice in his ear. âAnd even if you gave their elders a perfectly drawn schematic, I doubt they could cast the counterspell.â
He knew the East Wind was telling him something important â her voice was heavy with anticipated glee â but Khalid struggled to glean her meaning.
âWhy do you hold Al-Amirâs djinni back, Lady Eurus?â Malik broke in, giving Khalid time to think. âI thought you loved watching them soar.â
âI do!â Eurus flipped backward, an impossible twisting of her body had she been human.
âThen why hold our djinni hostage?â Malik asked.
There was a reason his friend was the Saaqibâs prime minister. The wind quieted, and Khalidâs pounding heart sounded loud in the sudden stillness.
âI havenât provided you with proof of power before now,â Eurus said, gesturing upward to the suspended djinni. âYou control your lands only at my whim.â
âThatâs true of everyone, Lady,â Malik replied. âNo one can live without breath.â
âIf my spell spins too fast for the European mages to discern, how did they figure out how to escape my djinni at Sabha?â Khalid asked, beginning to understand her game.
A fleeting smile of satisfaction ran across Eurusâs face. She was playing with him.
âI told them.â She swayed joyfully from side to side as if buffeted by countervailing winds. âThey couldnât believe protecting themselves from the djinni could be as simple as declaring themselves members of your Saaqib tribe! But Iâm fae and cannot lie, so they did it. Of course, they betrayed their own familial oaths and so got what they deserved.â
Eurus couldnât lie, but her truths were twisted with misdirection.
âMy army didnât deserve death,â Khalid said, trying to keep the accusation from his voice. Despite his aversion to the elemental faerie, heâd thought they had an understanding. That she held him in some esteem.
âElder AndrĂ© offered me quite a bit to learn the secret to avoiding your spell. Bargained away his enclaveâs future for that one little detail.â
Eurus sounded pleased by that. Though with everyone at Sabha dead, Khalid wasnât sure how sheâd be able to collect.
At Sabha, Khalid had been shocked when his djinni spun aimlessly through the enemy camp, leaving the enemy legions untouched. Their magick faded without them destroying anything. He didnât dare waste more time wondering how the European mages had discovered the secret of safeguarding their soldiers. Instead, heâd made a âbattlefield judgment,â as his sisters called it.
Gambling was what he called it. He'd gambled with his peopleâs lives, and lost. Khalid had known he wasnât strong enough to take down a dozen enclave battlemages alone so heâd conjured a single djinn to destroy all in its range. He should have known he wouldnât be fast enough to counter an unrestricted djinn in time.
But heâd gambled on his ability to finish casting the counterspell before his one djinn could finish dismembering the enemy army. Heâd set that whirlwind loose, only to be shocked into stillness by the sight of his own unblinking eyes as the djinn ripped through his own people.
That one djinn had been much faster, much stronger than heâd realized. By the time Khalid managed to decompose the spell, he was the sole survivor.
âYouâre always so cautious when we speak,â Eurus said. âYou surprised me when you didnât order a retreat after your djinni dissolved into wind.â
âI had little time to decide,â Khalid retorted, his heartbeat speeding up. I should have ordered a retreat. He didnât need her reminding him about things he wished he could forget.
As heâd twisted the final red-gold lines of the disenchantment, the djinn had been so close, heâd felt its electric gusts. All gone. Khalid swallowed down the remembered copper tang. He needed a bloodless victory tonight to atone for the thousands heâd lost at Sabha.
âAl-Amir knows we must crush the Europeans completely so that they will finally stop trying to claim our deserts. Ordinary defeat just sends them home to regroup and return. To retreat would have been a mistake.â Malik sounded so certain.
Khalid wished he could absorb his vizierâs faith. He rolled his shoulders back, forcing the memories away. âI see your power, Lady Eurus. If I bargain with you in good faith, will you let my djinni fly once we have completed our discussion?â
âThat would be fair.â Eurus pulled her feet beneath her to sit atop the air cross-legged again. âAgreed.â
âAgreed,â Khalid repeated, trying to stop thinking about what Eurus had done, would do, if she didnât get what she wanted. He started to sit atop the sand when Eurus sent the wind to raise him up.
Both Malik and Khalid settled onto the air. The wind stilled around them as if they were cocooned in a stone-walled palace.
Eurus nodded at him.
Of course. It was his âturn.â She had made the first offer: Eurus would keep Arabia safe if he agreed to spend his life developing a spell to make his djinn constructs live. Expend it, really: great magick required great sacrifice. But even if he were willing to sacrifice himself for Arabiaâs safety, he didnât have the magical power or know-how to cast such a spell.
She opened with a deal she knew I would turn down, Khalid mused, wishing he could consult Malik without Eurus listening. She expects me to counter.
âI donât want you bargaining with my enemies,â Khalid announced, watching for her reaction. It had to be the request she expected after her opening salvo.
The wind ruffled Eurusâs hair, blowing it upward so its pale strands fanned out like a rippling crown. âWouldnât you rather leave Arabiaâs defense to me and focus on your spelling? You just told your vizier how much you longed to be home in your workshop.â
Khalid hated how she listened to his conversations. Nothing spoken aloud was secret from the very air itself. He hated her almost as much as he hated himself. And if this bargaining dragged out too long, he feared he might tell her just that.
âIâm too weary to play these games, Lady Eurus,â Khalid said. âYouâve proven your willingness to trade with my enemies. Youâve reminded me of your power. If you side with the invaders, none of my spells can defeat them. I understand the stakes. Just tell me what you want.â
âCome to Delphi with me and petition the Oracle for a prophecy.â
Khalid blinked. âWhat? Why?â
Eurusâs amused chuckle tickled his ears.
âMy brother says you glow with a burgeoning prophecy. Come to Delphi so the Oracle might read it.â
âYour brother?â Khalid grasped for something familiar, something he could understand.
âMy younger brother, Zephyr. Not Boreas,â Eurusâs mouth flexed in a pout. âBoreas plays his own games.â
The last thing Khalid wanted was more elemental faeries blowing across his deserts.
âAre you bargaining for all the winds, then?â Malik asked.
âBoreas isnât interested in you or your lifeless deserts,â Eurus replied. âBut Zephyr has lost his zest for living. I invited him to examine your djinni to see if he might be excited by their potential. He finally came to watch you cast at Sabha.â
Khalidâs gut burned with a fury he couldnât quite contain. It leaked into his voice. âIs that why you bargained with the European enclaves? To make sure Iâd cast again? Youââ
Malik pressed one shoulder against his, and Khalid stopped speaking.
Eurus shook her head. âI knew youâd cast again. I thought youâd sound a retreat, spend a few months tweaking your spell. But youâre more of a gambler than I supposed. It was a near thing. I was about to blow you away when you managed to disenchant it.â
Khalid swallowed hard. If Eurus had saved his life, she would own it now. âI donât want any part of your family games.â
âThis is no game,â Eurus said sharply. âI donât contend with my siblings. Itâs one of the reasons why I like you. Why I like your people. You keep faith with your sisters.â
âWhat do you and your brothers stand to gain if we go and petition the Oracle?â Malik asked.
âNot you!â Eurusâs eyes flashed iridescent with her rebuke. âKhalid must come alone. If Zephyr canât manage to change the future, then Khalid must be the sole petitioner so that he gains enough power to make his djinni live.â
Change the future? Khalid thought. Perhaps this was not as simple as heâd thought. Fae bargains never were.
âHow would Al-Amir gain power?â Malik asked.
Malik was falling into her trap. The real question was what Eurus stood to gain by this. She had gone to a great deal of trouble to orchestrate it. Why, Khalid wondered.
âSpeaking a prophecy releases a pivotal power,â Eurus declared. âDoes Khalid make a petition, and the Oracle reads his fate, then will he leave Delphi coated with magick.â
Starlight glinted off the elementalâs sharp chin and cheekbones like the edges of a knife. âDripping with power,â she added.
âBut saddled with a prophecy.â Khalid shook his head. âOnly fools visit Delphi.â
âMany fools,â Eurus agreed. âThose who know their future but cannot change it have no hope. Itâs why we Winds shed the power of prediction when we emerged from the air molecules inside that cave. But what if fate can be changed?â
âYou were born at Delphi?â Malik asked.
âAn elemental isnât born,â the East Wind corrected him. âWe first manifested at Delphi.â
âThatâs why the air in those caves is so full of magic,â Malik said.
Eurus nodded, floating up and down with glee.
She thinks she has me, Khalid thought. âBut I donât need more power,â he said aloud. âSo this is not a fair bargain.â
âBut you need me to ignore your enemies! Their proposition at Sabha was not the first time they made an offer.â
Malik tilted his head, considering her. âBut they donât have anything that you want.â
The air around them stilled, but the East Wind didnât speak.
âWhat do you want, Lady Eurus?â Khalid asked.
Her blank eyes glittered in the starlight as she fixed her gaze on the frozen spell hanging overhead. âI want Zephyr to get a restart. A rebirth. He doesnât find your lifeless djinni appealing, and doesnât find anyone elseâs struggle interesting enough to manifest. So I issued him a challenge: change the future. Itâs the only thing heâs shown any interest in lately.â
Khalid heard a tremble in her voice. For the first time, he thought he understood her. Like him, Eurus loved her siblings.
âWhy do you need Amir Khalid for this?â Malik asked.
âBecause we need a prophecy against which he can contend. After seeing you at Sabha, Zephyr chose yours.â
âBut prophecies arenât prognostications,â Khalid said. âThey canât be changed.â
Eurus nodded her agreement. âOnce they take shape, thatâs true. Of course, it takes time to spell a prognostication into prophecy, just as it takes time to spin air into a djinn. Zephyr thinks he remembers enough of our magick to unravel the Oracleâs spell before it is fully set.â
âA worthy challenge,â Malik agreed, his eyes flickering to Khalid and back. âIf your brother succeeds, Al-Amirâs future will remain malleable. Zephyr will have fought fate itself to a standstill.â
âAnd if Zephyr fails,â Khalid added slowly, understanding the insidious bargain she proposed. âI will be the unlucky pivot point in an Oracular prophecy.â
âWith all the power that comes from being a pivot!â Eurusâs voice was sharp enough to etch glass.
Khalid wasnât immune to the mage-craving for more power. But being tormented by a future you couldnât change was even worse than being haunted by the past. What good was a future without hope?
âWe should meet your brother,â Malik said.
Eurus sawed back and forth, her angular body twisting unnaturally in the air. âThat is your right. Of course, heâs already in Delphi, working on his spells.â She smiled. âWe ought to drag this bargaining out. Zephyr is finally enjoying himself again. Anticipation is the spice of life.â
Khalid spoke without thinking. âNo!â He looked at his suspended spell. They were so close to victory. He needed this war to be over. And perhaps if her brother were a better playmate, Eurus might lose interest in his djinni.
He stood up on air that felt more solid than sand. Malik scrambled to stand up beside him.
âIâll go,â Khalid said. âI will visit the Oracle, petition for a prophecy. And neither you nor your brothers will ever bargain with my enemies again.â
âNeither of my brothers has any interest in your enemies or the deserts you fight over. I can speak for us all. Are we agreed?â
âBut only after we drive the invaders out. I wonât go before then,â Khalid added one last condition.
âDone.â Eurusâs omnipresent voice echoed in the stillness.
âDone,â Khalid responded with far less gusto.
Her sharp face relaxed into an almost tender expression. âProphecies are not worth the power they promise. But I think Zephyr can succeed. Iâll even protect him so he can focus solely on his casting. And if you are saddled with a prophecy, Iâll help you make the best of it.â
A gust of wind blew Malik back a step. âBut you must remain here.â
As Malik nodded, Eurusâs form dissipated in a breeze that ruffled their robes. In a heartbeat, they stood on the shifting sand, the rasp of wind across the dunes signaling the East Windâs departure.
Khalid held his breath as the multicolored mosaic in the sky began to move. The lightning crackled, and the whirlwinds corkscrewed, propelling the three djinni forward in an implacable advance. Bright plumes of color shone in their wake as they spun across the sand toward the enemy camp.
The deal was done. The war, won. And while fae bargains had a way of going wrong, Khalid was too tired to worry about that now.
âBring me back a bottle of Greek wine,â Malik murmured as the pair stared at the swirling djinni.
Set in a world similar to ours, yet very different, author Laura Engelhardt tackles an early 1900s African and present-day Arabia setting following Khalid, a mage that can summon djinni.
I went into this not knowing itâs part of an already-existing universe of books, which I think put me at a disadvantage. I didnât know anything about Khalid, but I got the impression that this would have been a much more enjoyable read if I had. Even as someone who had been around for centuries. Khalid seemed very unsure of himself and, dare I say, weak, considering he is supposedly powerful.
I often find that magic (or magick, I suppose, since that is what the author uses) is a little hard to read about when youâre starting a new book in a new world, because suddenly you have to figure out a whole new set of rules and words just to follow along with the plot. When I read fantasy, this is one of the main things I try to focus on. Magic tends to be the backbone of the world, so if I canât understand the magic, I canât understand the world.
Recasting Fate was the first portion of this book and I found it very thought-provoking. The idea that the personification of air (Eurus) as a faerie has been watching Khalid for a long time and trying to bargain with him simply because he humors her is terrifying and she even goes as far as to say, âYou control your lands only at my whim.â which is icy, and I loved that line.
When Eurus makes a bargain Khalid canât refuse, he is forced to travel to Delphi and risk being given a prophecy, a burden of fate.
Overall, I think going into this without prior knowledge of the book was detrimental, but the stories were still interesting. However, I donât know think it motivated me to continue with the rest of the books in the world.